Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Reverend Jones-the Christian terrorist and the media

Religious extremists and intolerance are not just limited to the Middle East. Christian fundamentalism can be equally as hateful and destructive. Look at Pastor Terry Jones. What was his agenda really? To actually burn the Qurans or perhaps just to get some money and fame? I'm 100% sure it was the latter. I didn't want to write about this earlier with all the hype he caused going on in the media and add to it even a bit.

In a way he is actually a clever man, he used the media for his personal benefit at a time islamophobia is raging like an epidemic in the US. Before his magnificent idea to burn the books life wasn't that great for Mr Jones. He had a sorry 50 followers (thank God), he had been kicked out of Germany a disgraced preacher following accusations of emotional, spiritual and economic abuse of his followers, his hate book didn't sell, and he happened to be in deep depts too.
Read more on his sect in Germany:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/quran-burning-terry-jones-sect-germany

He saw the potential of growing fear for Islam and decided to manipulate the media to his own advantage.

And what did the western media do? Go all crazy in reporting on this nobody. Even reporting LIVE from his church! I mean seriously, why did the media even bother? Because they too want to profit and with the "ground zero" mosque debate and 9/11 anniversary, what better headlines for them to indulge in!
The western media is feeding the terrorists, the Christian terrorists like mr Jones. Even president Obama disappointed by going along in his game and giving this insignificant hater some attention-just what Jones wanted and needed.

Now lets look at the definition of terrorism and its psychological aspects:Terrorism is defined as political violence in an asymmetrical conflict that is designed to induce terror and psychic fear (sometimes indiscriminate) through the violent victimization and destruction of noncombatant targets (sometimes iconic symbols). Such acts are meant to send a message from an illicit clandestine organization. The purpose of terrorism is to exploit the media in order to achieve maximum attainable publicity as an amplifying force multiplier in order to influence the targeted audience(s) in order to reach short- and midterm political goals and/or desired long-term end states."

The western media can be thanked for giving this terrorist maximum attainable publicity and allowing him thus to reach his goals. It's a shame on them for making such a little indifferent man top news for so many days. SHAME on them! He should not have made any headlines!

According to the reverend himself who btw never read the Quran or talked to a muslim before, his goal was to show the world how the muslims ie terrorists would (over)react. He wanted to send a message! I wonder what his noble message was. If anything it was a message of hate, intolerance and ignorance. Whatever his original message would have been, in reality it would've never reach the people he targeted unaltered.

First of all, if the foolish western media would have done the right, responsible thing and left the reverend to his pathetic existence, none of this madness would have happened.

Take those muslims in Afghanistan who got outraged and totally overreacted on the Quran burning. How did they actually find out and why was their reaction so blown out of proportion?
Media in places like Afghanistan is of course, nothing like media in the west. People don't have tv's or internet let alone access to channels like cnn or bbc. Otherwise they would have learned the truth of the matter, that about 90% of americans are against what Jones represents and entirely condemn his actions.
What ultimately reaches these uneducated poverty stricken people is mostly hearsay, not what we know, not what the reverends egoistic heroic message to them was.
These hypersensitive muslims probably heard about an american christian religious leader threatening to burn Qurans. They most likely heard it at the neighborhood mosque, from the imam they trust. The imam could possibly have a clue of the true matters, but what is most important here is that the message he delivers to them is of hatred and intolerance. So the original message becomes distorted and exaggerated.

Before reverend Jones or any other westerner goes ahead and rolls their eyes condmening these people and says "we told you so" we have to put things into context. These radically reacting muslims might have no education at all, they might be illiterate, their knowledge of the west is from anti-western extremists they look up to at their mosques, they have no access to other media outlets and their whole lives have been fed crap about the big bad west and it being the source of all their problems. That is their reality and it sheds a whole different light on the matter.
I think we as educated human beings should acknowledge this, not necessarily accept it, but at least understand the backrounds that lead to this behavior.

Maybe mr Jones could fly out to Afghanistan himself and see what goes on there and deliver his message while at it!

2 comments:

I am a Christian myself but would never ever think of burning any religious books..Wonder how they practice the 'gospel of love' when they have soo much of hatred in them..We live in Dubai and have to admit this - Muslims and Christians and other 100 religions live in harmony here..Almost all my muslim neighbors are extremely friendly and helpful..share iftar with us..and its wonderful being here..

Well written post..just stumbled upon ur blog today and loved reading it..

Hi Babita!Thank you for commenting!Sounds like you have a nice balance of religions living side by side over there!I think its a shame that we can't have more open discussion between religious groups in Saudi Arabia.